M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
The Deuteronomic Code[a]
Chapter 12
One Place of Worship.[b] 1 These are the statutes and the decrees that you must be careful to observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you as an inheritance for the whole time that you live upon the earth. 2 You must totally destroy all the places where the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods, whether they be on the high mountains or upon the hills or under every green tree. 3 You are to overturn their altars and break their sacred pillars. You must burn their wooden idols in fires, you must cut down their carved idols and obliterate their names from that place. 4 This is not the way that you are to worship the Lord, your God.
5 You are to seek out the place that the Lord, your God, has chosen from among all the tribes to be where you shall place his name and establish his dwelling. This is where you are to go 6 to bring your burnt offering, your sacrifices, your tithes, your wave offerings, what you have vowed to give as a freewill offering, and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. 7 There you and your families will eat before the Lord, your God, and you shall rejoice at everything you have put your hand to, for the Lord, your God, will have blessed you. 8 You are not to do things the way we do them today, that each person does as he sees fit, 9 for you have not yet come to your resting place, the inheritance that the Lord, your God, is giving you. 10 But when you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord, your God, is giving to you as an inheritance, a place where he will give you peace from all the enemies who surround you so that you can live in safety, 11 then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen for the dwelling place of his name: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your wave offerings, and all of your choice vow offerings that you have vowed onto the Lord. 12 You and your sons and daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite who lives in your town (for he has no claim to your inheritance) will rejoice before the Lord, your God.
13 Make sure that you do not offer burnt offerings any place you might happen to see, 14 but you are to offer burnt offerings in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes. There you are to fulfill all that I command you to do.
15 Permissible Slaughter. Nevertheless, you can slaughter animals and eat meat within your town gates with the blessing that the Lord, your God, gives you, as much as you desire. The clean and the unclean may eat of it, the gazelle and the roebuck alike. 16 Only you are not to consume its blood; you are to pour it on the ground as if it were water.[c]
17 You are not to eat the following things within your town gates: the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil, the firstborn of the herds or flocks, any of the vow offerings you have offered with a vow, any freewill offering and any wave offering. 18 You are to eat these before the Lord, your God, in the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen, you and your son and your daughter, your manservant and your maidservant, and the Levite who lives in your town. You are to rejoice before the Lord, your God, in all of your undertakings.
19 Take heed not to forsake the Levite for as long as you live in the land. 20 When the Lord, your God, enlarges your boundaries, as he has promised that he will do, and you say to yourself, “I am going to eat some meat,”[d] because you feel like eating some meat, you can eat as much meat as you desire.
21 If the place that the Lord, your God, will have chosen to put his name is too far from where you are living, you can kill any animal from the herd or the flock that the Lord has given you, just as I have instructed you. You can eat as much as you want of it within your town gates. 22 You can eat them like you would eat the gazelle or the roebuck. Both the unclean and the clean can eat of it. 23 Only be careful that you do not consume the blood, for the blood is its life. You are not to eat the life with the meat. 24 You are not to consume the blood; you are to pour it on the ground as if it were water. 25 You are not to eat it, so that things may turn out well for you and your children after you, for you will be doing the right thing from the Lord’s point of view.
26 Take your consecrated things and whatever you have vowed to give, and go to the place that the Lord has chosen. 27 Present your burnt offerings, both the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord, your God. You are to pour the blood out on the altar of the Lord, your God, but you can eat the meat. 28 Take heed to observe all of the things that I have commanded you, that things may go well with you and your children forever, when you do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, your God. 29 The Lord, your God, will cut down the nations of the place where you are going before you so that you can dispossess them. When you take their place and settle in their land 30 and they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by asking questions about their gods such as, “How did these nations serve their gods? We should do the same thing as they did.” 31 You shall not do these things to the Lord, your God. They have worshiped their gods with every kind of abomination that the Lord hates. They have even offered their sons and daughters as burnt sacrifices to their gods.
Psalm 97[a]
Divine King and Universal Judge
1 The Lord is King;[b] let the earth exult;
let the distant isles rejoice.
2 [c]Clouds and darkness[d] surround him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire[e] precedes him,
consuming his enemies on every side.
4 His flashes of lightnwing illumine the world;
the earth sees this and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,[f]
and all the nations behold his glory.
7 All who worship images are put to shame,
those who boast of their worthless idols;
bow down before him, all you gods.[g]
8 Zion hears and rejoices,
and the cities[h] of Judah exult
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are the Most High over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.
10 [i]Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for he protects the souls of his faithful ones
and rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 [j]Light dawns for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous,
and give thanks to his holy name.
Psalm 98[k]
Praise of the Lord, King and Judge
1 A psalm.
Sing to the Lord a new song,[l]
for he has accomplished marvelous deeds.
His right hand and his holy arm
have made him victorious.
2 The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has manifested his righteousness for all the nations to see.[m]
3 He has remembered his kindness[n] and his fidelity
to the house of Israel.
The farthest ends of the earth have witnessed
the salvation of our God.
4 Sing joyfully to the Lord, all the earth;
raise your voices in songs of praise.
5 Sing praise to the Lord with the harp,
with the harp and melodious singing.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
sing joyfully to the King, the Lord.[o]
7 [p]Let the sea resound and everything in it,
the world[q] and all its inhabitants.
8 Let the rivers clap their hands
and the mountains shout for joy.
9 Let them sing before the Lord, who is coming,
coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with justice
and the nations with fairness.[r]
The Book of Consolation[a]
The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation[b]
Chapter 40
Salvation of the Lord[c]
1 Comfort my people and console them,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
and proclaim to her
that her time of servitude is over
and that her guilt has been expiated.
Indeed she has received from the Lord’s hand
double punishment for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make a straight path in the desert for our God.
4 Let every valley be filled in
and every mountain and hill be made low.
Uneven ground will be made smooth
and the rugged places will become a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all mankind will see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
I reply, “What shall I cry out?”
“All mortals are grass;
they last no longer than the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord falls upon them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass may wither and the flower may fade,
but the word of our God will endure forever.”
9 Climb to the top of a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings.
Cry out as loudly as you can,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
Lift up your voice without fear
and proclaim to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See the Lord God approaching with power,
he who rules with his powerful arm.
His reward is with him
and his recompense[d] is before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
and in his arms he will gather the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom
and gently leading the pregnant ewes to water.
The Creator’s Power To Save His People
12 Who has measured the waters of the sea
in the hollow of his hand,
or marked off the heavens
with the breadth of his hand?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
What counselor dared to instruct him?
14 Whom did he consult to gain enlightenment?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge
or showed him the way of understanding?
15 In his eyes the nations are
like a drop in a bucket,
like dust on the scales.
To him coasts and islands[e]
weigh no more than fine dust,
16 Lebanon would not supply enough wood for fuel,
nor are its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as naught in his sight;
he reckons them as nothing and void.
18 To whom then will you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
19 Perhaps an idol that a craftsman casts
and a goldsmith overlays with gold
and for which he fashions silver chains?
20 Or should mulberry wood be chosen,
a wood that will not rot,
and then a skilled artisan be designated
to fashion an idol that will not fall over?
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Were you not told from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?
22 God sits enthroned above the vault of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy
and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of the earth to nothing.
24 Scarcely have crops been planted or sown,
scarcely have their stems taken root in the ground,
before he breathes on them and they wither,
and storm winds carry them off like chaff.
25 To whom then can you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes to the heavens.
Who created these things?
He leads forth their host and numbers them,
summoning them all by name.[f]
Because of his mighty power and great strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
the Creator of the earth’s farthest boundaries.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding cannot be scrutinized.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and new vigor to those who are powerless.
30 Even though young men faint and grow weary
and youths stumble and fall,
31 those who place their hope in the Lord
will regain their strength.
They will soar as with eagles’ wings,
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not become faint.
Chapter 10
A Small Scroll: Sweet and Bitter.[a] 1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire, 2 and his hand held a small scroll that had been opened.
Placing his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, 3 the angel gave forth a great shout like the roar of a lion. And when he shouted, the seven thunders spoke. 4 After the seven thunders had spoken, I was preparing to write when I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have spoken, but do not write it down.”
5 Then the angel whom I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven 6 and swore by him who lives forever and ever and who created heaven and earth and the sea and everything that is in them: “There will be no further delay. 7 When the time comes for the seventh angel to sound his trumpet, the mysterious purpose of God[b] will be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the Prophets.”
8 Then I again heard the voice that had spoken to me from heaven, and it said, “Go and take that open scroll from the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9 Therefore, I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll. He replied, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will taste as sweet as honey.”
10 I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. In my mouth it did taste as sweet as honey, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour. 11 Then I was told, “You must prophesy once again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”
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